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The Celestial Swamp - A voyage through a flooded forest fringe (Shallow Riparium)

The trap has been set to catch the glowlight danios.. . Unfortunately only the amano shrimp have ventured in so far...

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I drip acclimated and added 15 Microdevario kubotai... they are beautiful fish but too fast to take pictures of with my phone.. .

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I also moved the 8 cpds that were in a breeder box in the sump up to the main display... hopefully the danios will get trapped before they harass the new fish and make them jump...
 
I removed my glow light danios a few months ago as they were becoming a real pain. Since then the tank has been much more harmonious and I'm getting the best out of my pencilfish. I used the bottle method and this is why I'm posting, the first couple were easily caught but even after several weeks the others wouldn't venture in. I had to let my pencilfish out several times a day as they were happy to be caught but the danio were very wary of the trap. In the end I gave up and just used a net which sounds like its more trouble than its worth in a planted tank but it worked. The tank is planted jungle style but it was much easier to move them into a corner with something and catch them than wait for them to go in the trap.
I thought I'd never catch them with the net but it was pretty easy in the end so don't rule it out if they start to be a pain with the new fish.
 
mort said:
I thought I'd never catch them with the net but it was pretty easy in the end so don't rule it out if they start to be a pain with the new fish.
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Not possible... 2/3rds of the tank is manzanita with a million inaccessible hiding spots... I caught them the last time I used the bottle trap... problem is the amano cleaned the bottle right out last night and just slipped out again... crafty buggers...
 
I was watching the tank last night after I added the M. Kubotai and it's amazing what a school of dither fish can do for more skittish fish... almost immediately the C. Margaritatus, B. Tinwini, and C. Erythromicron and C. Choprae all came out of hiding into the open water... the M. Kubotai are more of a mid to top dwelling fish and they don't seem to be skittish, much like the B. Tinwini before their numbers dwindled to the current 4 that I have now...

So I watched the C. Choprae for awhile and they really are mean... constantly harassing even the largest of the C. Margaritatus males and any other fish that comes near it besides the Ancistrus... once these bastards have been moved maybe I can try cherry shrimp again and all the other fish can stay in the tank without being chased out...
 
Still no luck with catching the C. Choprae in the bottle trap... just shrimp and ottos...

But also I have no jumpers so maybe the previous agressive culprit is gone... the new amano shrimps are doing fine... but the H. Polysperma is still showing signs of deficiency... Pale colour and holes in older leaves and now transparent areas in newer leaves a few nodes from the top... i turned the light intensity down a bit a couple days ago and I am dosing more fertz... nothing drastic has changed recently except for the green water / bacterial bloom and UV light... could it be anything else? I don't think flow has changed at all...

I added another large Anthurium sp. to the back right HOB and another Calathea Lancifolia to an aquaverdi planter on the left...

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I couldn't find any local sources of Ficus pumila to add to the stump on the left and they never seem to take from stem cuttings... it's root or nothing...
 
This is one of my favourite fish... Otociclus Cocama... nice fat belly

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Bristle Nose Ancistrus hiding behind the clear bottle...

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I don't know if this is going to work long term but I moved some small stunted Spathiphyllum 'petite to some aquaverdi planters in front of the overflow to fill in the space... they were in the very back, severely shaded, and the roots where growing 6+" down the main bean animal drain and messing up the small pump that supplies one of the HOB breeder boxes...

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Lovely riparium setup.. A joy to watch.. :thumbup:
hitmanx said:
I couldn't find any local sources of Ficus pumila to add to the stump on the left and they never seem to take from stem cuttings... it's root or nothing...
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If you have access to top cuttings, than you have beter chances with putting them in moist perlite or sterile cutting soil and cover the pot with a (cut) pet bottle, to create a little greenhouse, to control air humidity... Put it in a light spot on the window sil. This can be done from march till november or else the light periode gets to short. In about 6 weeks it should have roots and can be moved to its permanent spot. Older top cuttings showing air roots seem to be more vital and root faster.. 🙂
 
zozo said:
Lovely riparium setup.. A joy to watch.. :thumbup:


If you have access to top cuttings, than you have beter chances with putting them in moist perlite or sterile cutting soil and cover the pot with a (cut) pet bottle, to create a little greenhouse, to control air humidity... Put it in a light spot on the window sil. This can be done from march till november or else the light periode gets to short. In about 6 weeks it should have roots and can be moved to its permanent spot. Older top cuttings showing air roots seem to be more vital and root faster.. 🙂
Click to expand...

Thanks, I will try this method...
 
So using my frog-bit as a "duckweed index" I definitely think that my tank was nutrient deficient... the growth has been explosive in only a few days

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With the same dosing scheme I've had all this time but before the riparium plants we're so big I had to throw out handfuls of frog-bit each week...
 
alto said:
Looking back at your substrate layers, it seems unlikely that the relatively limited submerse plant growth has stripped all nutrition (unless your emerse plants have access)

The possibility of allelopathy is also a consideration - especially in a limited water change system
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These are interesting ideas... the roots of the Spaths have definitely made there way down into the substrate in the back... who knows how far into the soil they go...

Also the idea allelopathy has me thinking... perhaps one of the many plants is responsible for this madness... it's very frustrating that nothing else seems to grow in the submerssed section besides H. Polysperma and a few crypts... I'm sure I have enough light... it's brighter the any of my previous tanks for sure... if the PAR was too high, compounded with low nutrient levels and no co2, that would also account for poor growth would it not?

Even the dwarf sag I added isn't really taking off...
 
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I've been working on this tank so much lately it's hard to remember that with a low tech changes take more time to settle in... some times I go months without doing anything but feed and top off... so far I've reduced the light intensity and period, started fertilizing more, decided to do 7% weekly water changes , moved plants around, and added more flora and fauna... all this within a month... it will be hard to know exactly what has helped or hindered my tank...

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I truly wish my original idea of the submerssed section being dominated by crypts and tenellus panned out... I truly hate having to constantly trim stems... I also wanted a more open feel and the stems create the illusion of a smaller depth of field, not to mention the hardscape that I painstakingly designed is all but invisible behind it...

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Unfortunately I may have cursed the otociclus cocama when I posted the picture the other day... somehow he made it to the floor for a few minutes, and my first reaction was to put him back in quickly, but he has ceased to exist... out of any off my fish, that one made me sad...

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Sorry to hear about your oto... I wonder would dwarf sag give you the feel you are after in place of some of your stems?
 
Fauna

1 Otocinclus affinis
1 BN ancistrus
4 Brachydanio tinwini
10+ Celestichthys erythromycin
14+ Celestichthys margaritas
4 Celestichthys choprae
15 Microdevario kubotai
5+ Amano shrimp


Flora

Bellow:

Hygrophila polysperma
Cryptocoryne walkeri ‘lutea’
Cryptocoryne parva
Cryptocoryne willisii x
Helanthium tenellum
Sagittaria subulata
Lysimachia nummularia ‘aurea’
Ceratopteris thalictroides
Limnobium laevigatum


Above:

Adiantum aethiopicum
Spathiphyllum 'Petite'
Syngonium podophyllum 'Butterfly'
Calathea lancifolia
Aglaonema sp.
Chamaedorea cataractarum
Chamaedorea elegans
Ficus pumila
Anthurium sp.
Pilea mollis 'Moonvalley'
Pilea cadierei
 
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